From left, Ron Hainsey, Daniel Winnik and Chris Campoli will be among the 13 players in the room for Wednesday's negotations. / Mary Altaffer, AP

by Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

by Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports

The NHL and its players spent six-and-a-half hours with a federal mediator Wednesday and didn't move any closer to ending the 88-day-old lockout that now jeopardizes the entire season.

"Today was more a feeling-out process with the mediator trying to understand what went on last week and how the process broke down," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told USA TODAY Sports via email. "While I am sure there was a 'what if?'process with both sides, neither side tabled a new proposal."

NHL officials had wanted negotiations to resume with a media blackout, but some reporters determined the meeting was in New Jersey. When players exited, they indicated the lack of progress.

"There's not much you can do when it's take it or leave it," Chicago Blackhawks forward Jamal Mayers told the New York Daily News.

Players immediately left the meeting to inform player representatives what had happened. It's still unclear when, or if, the two sides would meet again.

Daly said the two sides were never in the same room during the day.

"As I understand it, no changes to either party's respective positions from last week," he said.

Last Thursday, talks broke off after owners rejected the players' response to their offer from the night before, which added $89 million to their "make whole" clause and took changes to arbitration and unrestricted free agency off the table. However, they stuck to their demand that individual contracts be capped at five years, with an exception of seven years for teams re-signing their own players. Owners also asked for the new collective bargaining agreement be for 10 years, and not for six as they had previously requested.

Owners said their offer was contingent upon players accepting those changes, and accepting the fact there will be no amnesty buyouts or escrow caps in the first season.

The players didn't accept the owners' offer, opting to come back with their own proposal of an eight-year CBA and an eight-year cap on individual contracts.

Players had asked for the return of the mediators for the second time. They met with players and owners for two days in late November and weren't able to help bridge the gap.

No owners attended Wednesday's meeting.

"I think it is safe to say that our owners were not pleased with how last week ended," Daly said.

In recent days, there has been more behind-the-scenes discussion about players embracing a "disclaimer of interest," which in effect would dissolve the union and allow some players to challenge the lockout in court through antitrust laws.

NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr has not indicated publicly whether the union would seek that option.